The Whole Story

Okay, so I finally found some time to fill you in on the details of my last post, which I wrote after emailing a makeshift will to a friend of mine while I was at the airport. Let me explain.

Rebekah and I make a point to visit some of our best friends every Fall, so this past weekend we made our way to the airport, expecting to take the normal 3 hour and 12 minute flight from San Jose International to Austin-Bergstrom.

We were seated in row 30 of the American Airlines MD-80, and had been getting to know Stephanie (a pregnant lady seated next to us), when, at about 20,000 feet, we had an experience that I will never forget. This will take much longer to write than it did to happen. There was a loud explosion to our left (we were seated right in between the two jet engines) and a high pitched squeal, followed by a barrage of knocks, and an immense jolt. We instantly began banking hard-right, and losing altitude; everyone was screaming. And that's when I that I was going to die.

In the movies, someone immediately comes on the intercom, and the oxygen masks deploy; neither of these things happened. I felt helplessness and despair, and did the only thing I could think of: I held my wife's hand, told her that I loved her, and recited the Lord's Prayer. I remember thinking that I should be ready to accept whatever was coming to me, but I was not. "Deliver us from evil."

When I had finished praying, my very brave wife, who had been holding Stephanie's hand (who was crying uncontrollably) asked if she could pray with her; Stephanie wanted this very much. Rebekah held her in her arms, and prayed that the God who knows all would take care of Stephanie and her unborn child.

At this point, the plane was under control, but still descending quickly. It got very quiet; no one spoke or moved. Finally, the pilot got on the PA and told us that we had lost the left engine, but that it had been successfully shut down. He was confident that he could get us back to San Jose safely running on the remaining engine; and he made good on his word. In a matter of minutes, we were safely on the ground, and waiting for a new airplane to take us on our way.

I can't say that I was too excited to get on another plane (and since the formerly full flight was nowhere near full the second time around, I could tell that I was not alone), but as Rebekah pointed out, we were going to have to fly again sometime, so we might as well just conquer this fear asap.

We got on a new plane five hours later, and had a lovely visit with our friends in the Republic of Texas. And that's pretty much the whole story.

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Woah!

Have you ever thought that your death was eminent? I'm not talking about being chased by a big dog, or almost getting into a car accident; I'm talking about really thinking you are going to die, and having time to think about how you feel about it.

Well, I recently had that experience, and I must say that it was different than I thought it would be. For some reason I thought I would be calm, I was anything but. I could feel my heart pounding so furiously that I thought you could see it through my shirt (though my wife says that I looked calm). I thought I would be ready to accept death if that was what God had for me, I was not. I was telling a friend of mine that I was somewhat ashamed of myself for being scared and for not being ok with my mortality, and he reminded me that Jesus had those same feelings.

So what did I do? I held my wife's hand and prayed the Lord's prayer.

Anyway, it was indeed an interesting experience to think I was going to die, and not to be able to do anything about it. I hope not to have this experience again anytime soon. And it was a good reminder to me as well that death is our enemy. A defeated enemy, but our enemy nonetheless.

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Seasons and Holy Days

The human race has always lived according to the seasons. As spring comes, we plant. Then summer arrives, and we tend the fields. In the fall we gather the harvest. And in the winter, we live off of the year’s bounty, and prepare for it to happen all over again.

Although this seems like a never-ending cycle, we should also note that we humans mark out certain days and seasons of feasting to remind us of events that happened at one singular point in history, and which forever changed the future. We call these days “holidays” (from the marriage of the two words “holy” and “day”). The word “holy” means “set apart,” and hence we can see that within the never-ending cycle of seasons, we set apart certain days as unique and worthy of being noted and remembered.

Not surprisingly, we Christians inherited this practice from our forefathers, the Hebrews. Ever since the Exodus out of Egypt, the Hebrews set apart special days in the spring to remember their salvation from exile and slavery. This holiday is known as the Passover. And every time we Christians celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we remember that Christ took that Passover meal, and transformed it into the meal that it was always meant to be: a meal that looks back at Christ’s act of atonement for sins, and looks forward to His redemption of the whole universe.

Another great time of remembrance is upon us even now, and so we set apart a season of anticipation; of Advent. The word Advent means “coming,” and we are reminded each year at this time, that we await the Savior of the world, not only in remembrance of His first coming, but also that we are living in the time between His first and second Advent. As we prepare for the wonderful holiday we call Christmas, let us realize that in similar fashion to the Lord’s supper (and its attending holiday, Easter), we are looking back at that pivotal moment when God became flesh in the birth of Jesus, and we are looking forward to that glorious moment when He returns, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

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